Eddie hated kids (that wasn't true) and he particularly hated Dustin Henderson (that definitely wasn't true).

He had been surprised when Dustin and Mike had walked back into the house when everyone else was going with Max, and honestly a little disappointed that he no longer had the chance to snoop through Nora's things. But then they had explained about the compasses, and how if there was a magnetic force stronger than the Earth's the compass would point to that rather than North. And this happened whenever a gate appeared.

So they had gone down to Nora's basement and found the map of Hawkins, and Dustin had used the power of math to draw a line from the house to the edge of the map, announcing that the gate was somewhere along that line.

And then they had realized that Patrick had died right on that line and decided that the gate just had to be there and they just had to go find it.

"No." Eddie had said. "Absolutely not! You're all staying here where Nora left you."

"Eddie, man, we've been at this way longer than you, we know what we're doing -"

"The Chief was very clear: you're not getting involved! I'm not letting you go out without an adult present!"

"You're an adult."

And well, who was he to argue with that logic?

The boys had gone to fetch Steve and Robin, as they needed a driver once again, and somehow convinced Steve to ignore the fact that Eddie wasn't allowed out of the house and was in fact in hiding from the police.

Five hours had passed since then and they were still stuck behind some bushes, waiting for nightfall when the police would finally pack up their shit and leave, allowing them access. Luckily, this was the exact spot Eddie and Lucas had docked after their nightmarish chase out into the lake, and as such they didn't have to go looking for a boat to get them to the middle of the lake as it was already here.

"I can't believe you guys dragged me into this shit. This is super interesting, what are we doing? Just staring out into nothing, is what."

"Shut up, Steve."

The older boy probably would have responded, but at that moment they heard the distinctive crackle of a walkie coming from Dustin's back pack.

"Hello? Boys, this is Nora, do you copy? Over."

Dustin cursed and fumbled for his radio for a moment, sending panicked looks their way before responding.

"Nora! Hey! Hey, Nora! What's hanging?"

They snorted and Steve sarcastically made the ok sign with his fingers. "Nice, Henderson, real smooth. Not suspicious at all."

"Shut up!" the boy hissed, swiping at the other.

Honestly the entire relationship between those two was enough to have Eddie laughing all day, but now was perhaps not the best time to let himself go considering the police weren't that far away and if he was caught, he would go to jail for three murders, even if the Chief of Police tried to help him.

"Max fought off Vecna, so that's nice, though she's slightly injured. Where did the compass lead you guys? We'll meet you there. Over."

"What?" Steve demanded, snatching the walkie from the boy's hands and ignoring his protests. "What happened with Max?"

"Vecna got a hold of her." Nora replied and the five of them stared intently at the walkie, waiting for her to finish. "She even started levitating, but she fought back, just like we talked about. She's fine, just a burn on her arm and a bust lip, but she's good. Now where are you?"

The group let out a relieved breath and Dustin chuckled nervously into the radio. "At your house, where you left us, duh."

"Uh huh, yeah. If I didn't know you Dustin, and if Eddie didn't already have a record of jailbreaking, I would believe you. But I don't, so let's not waste time, shall we?"

Exchanging looks, Eddie was the first to cave with a shrug before he turned back to peer through the bush.

By the time the rest of the Party arrived, the sun had just set and Robin had fallen onto her back in tears, complaining about boredom and that this was how she was going to die.

Their arrival was punctuated by cries of happiness from Dustin and Mike, and though the police had left shortly before, Eddie still flinched at their volume. It was hard not to regret letting the kids convince him to come out when the entire city was hunting for him. Hopper had done his best to avoid announcing Eddie's involvement in the murder, but his van being at the third site forced his hand. He did however manage to shut Jason up when he crashed the town meeting, talking about the Devil and possession and Evil with a capital E being in Hawkins. The Chief had threatened him with the mental institute and ordered his deputies to let him cool off in a cell for the night.

Brought out of his thoughts by the rustling of leaves as Nora pushed her way into the bush beside him, he sent her a smile that she returned with a small squeeze of her hand on his shoulder, causing a slight shiver to rush through his body.

"So do we think it's a coincidence that the gate is exactly where Patrick was killed?" She asked, staring out at the lake.

"Doubt it."

"Yeah, didn't think so. So what's the plan?"

Dustin turned back towards them and began duck marching over to them to avoid the low hanging branches of the trees above them, a great grin on his face. He had been terrified for Max all day and seeing her happy, healthy and alive, though a bit bruised up had returned his shining personality back to him.

"We were waiting for you all to get here before we went out there to investigate." He announced.

"Good idea. Alright, that boat should hold four." Nora stated eyeing the row boat a few feet away. "Here, we stopped by the house on our way here."

Unwrapping a package that Eddie hadn't noticed before, the young woman uncovered a pair of axes - the same ones that hung on her living room wall - and the spiked mace he had left behind, handing the mace and spare axe to Eddie and Robin respectively while Steve just held his bat up with a smile and a nod. Accepting the gift with a shaky breath, Eddie looked back and forth between the weapon and the lake a few times, swallowing to soothe his suddenly dry throat.

This was it, he was going to go out there and investigate this gate to an alternate dimension and he would keep his cool. It would be fine, he had backup.

"Alright, let's go."

At Steve's call, the four adults (Robin was the youngest at 18, they were adults, shut it!) stood and began to make their way to the boat.

"Hey wait!" Dustin cried, leading the others after them. "What about us?"

"There's only one boat, dingus."

"But it was us that found the damn gate in the first place!"

"You guys stay here, keep a look out." Nora ordered. "Eleven, keep them safe."

Eddie watched the little girl straighten her shoulders and harden her features, sending a terse nod their way, and despite the look of her tiny body he couldn't help but take her seriously. The kids would be safe, she would ensure it. He shook his head slightly at the ridiculousness of this new world he had stumbled into, where 14 year olds were fighting monsters and throwing people through the air with their mind, but he got on the boat with the others and kept his eye on Eleven as she stood at the shore, watching Steve and Robin take them further and further to the heart of the lake.

"Think this is it?"

Looking around, trying to gauge the distance between the boat and Rick's house on the shore two hundred feet away, Eddie nodded slowly. "Yeah this is about right."

"Alright one of us needs to go down there."

"Not me!" Nora responded immediately, her hands up by her head, but Steve was already removing his shoes and socks.

"Don't worry your little head about it, I'm going. Certified lifeguard for three years and Captain of the swim team. You're welcome."

Rising to his feet, he removed his shirt as the girls grabbed a plastic bag and wrapped one of their flashlights in it tightly to protect it from the water, handing it over to him when he was ready.

"Thank you, ladies." And then he was gone.

The three stared out at the black water beneath the boat, watching the fading light from the torch get further and further away the deeper he went. Robin was counting the seconds under her breath as they waited for him to come back.

"He didn't take his bat." Nora remarked quietly, clutching the side of the boat tightly.

Indeed, the bat was on the floor beside him and Eddie couldn't help but silently curse Steve for being an idiot, but the woman's nerves were palpable in the air, her fingers clenched on the side of the boat causing the wood to creak under her nails whenever she flexed her hands.

"It'll be fine, he's just checking it out, right?"

She took her eyes off the water to look at him and send a small thankful smile that he returned, placing a hand over hers, happy he was able to provide some form of comfort or reassurance as their friend swam towards the gate to the Upside Down with no weapon - a terrible idea that Eddie was beginning to regret agreeing to once again.

"Are you afraid of the water?" He asked, curious about her reaction when Robin had said one of them needed to go down.

"Hmm, not afraid exactly." The woman responded. "I'm just not the best swimmer. There's no water in the Upside Down - or well, enough to drink, not enough to swim in - and Brenner wasn't exactly taking us out on trips to the local pool."

He had to grit his teeth at the mention of Dr Brenner. That man had groomed Nora and Eleven - and all those other kids too - and used them to physically and psychologically torture people. Kids had no place in war, and when he thought of Nora's artwork, or how comfortable El looked in Mike's arms and how their smiles lit up the room, he wanted to take his spiked mace to the man's kneecap.

"Is there anything that you are afraid of?" He questioned wryly, feeling slightly inadequate next to this girl that had lived a literal government conspiracy before being banished to an alternate dimension where every breathing thing was an enemy. She had battle scars that told of her bravery, while he had screamed like a little girl when Chrissy died. But he was here now, that had to count for something, right?

Nora huffed a laugh, turning back to the water just in time to miss the man's fond smile. "Of course I am. Just not many of my fears are actually physical, like spiders and monsters and shit. Faced too many of them to still be scared, though snakes are an exception. Watching those I care about die, though..."

That made sense, Eddie figured. If he had grown up with twelve siblings for all but two to die at the hands of another - she never did mention what happened to Number 7 after he teleported them to the Upside Down did she? - only to have her second found family in the thick of multiple supernatural disasters, he'd have taken the term 'abandonment issues' to a whole other level. Not to mention she was taken from her real parents at a young age to be part of a government experiment.

Oh God, did Nora have Daddy issues? He had heard Eleven refer to Dr Brenner as Papa once or twice, did the man paint himself as their father?

"Have you swam since you got back?"

Nora thankfully didn't seem to notice how strained his voice had become. "Yeah, Hopper taught El and I once she was free to come out of hiding. I'm... adequate," She said, quirking a smile, "but not anywhere close to proficient."

"It's been two minutes, guys." Robin called and Nora let out an explosive sigh, training her eyes boring holes in the water below them.

"Come on, man." Eddie muttered.

As if summoned, a tiny white light shone below, getting larger and brighter as the seconds passed until Steve finally broke through.

"Are you ok?" Nora demanded immediately, leaning further out of the boat. Eddie had to grab her waist to stop her from capsizing them, letting go quickly as if his hand was burned - which she could do, but didn't, he couldn't help but notice.

"I'm good." The man gasped. "And it's definitely down there, though it's a small one."

"Alright, we need to get El over here. You think she can do it from here? I don't think she's going to be able to dive down there."

Before anyone could respond, Steve's head disappeared suddenly under water and the remaining trio stilled. He returned after a few moments, looking as bewildered as them, and opened his mouth to speak, only for a yelp to rip out his mouth as he was dragged under again.

"Steve!" The girls screamed, and Eddie could only look at the fading glow of the flashlight move erratically as it was carried away by the currents.

"No, no, no, shit! Shit, shit, fuck!"

As Nora cursed and paced on the already rocky boat, the man couldn't help but notice that Robin had gone quiet, staring down at the water with her mouth open. Then her jaw clicked shut, her eyebrows furrowed and she grabbed the axe the she had been given before jumping over the side.

"Robin!" Eddie screamed, lurching forward to catch her, but he was too late.

"Robin!"

Clutching her head, Nora stared down at the water in horror. She let out a breath and bent to pick Steve's bat up, holding it tightly in her left hand with her axe in her right, and Eddie knew what she was going to do.

"Nora no!" He ordered, throwing a hand out to stop her. "No way!"

"They have no idea what's waiting for them on the other side of that gate, Eddie."

She stared straight into his eyes, a more serious expression than he had ever seen on her before, and he almost wavered. Almost.

"You said you can't swim!"

"I san I can, I'm just not good at it."

She smirked at him as if she was boasting, and dived into the water, forcing Eddie to grab onto his own weapon and jump in after her with a string of curses.

The water was freezing, which in this instance may have been more of a blessing than a curse as he followed the burning glow of Nora's hands while they boiled the water around them, but Eddie could only feel slight warmth caress his skin whenever he passed by a spot she had touched. He let her hands guide him down, down, deeper into the dark murkiness of the lake, until he could see a glowing and pulsing crack in the bed. Robin was gone, already disappeared through the gate, Nora following shortly after.

Pushing through was like having vertigo. One moment his head was down and his feet were up, the next it was the opposite and he had to use the strength of him arms to claw his way out of the ground. Looking around, his first impression of this new place was orange. Everything was orange, red or brown, like a sandstorm had just blown through. Then he saw how desolate the place was: the lake was gone, leaving behind dry and cracked earth.

Then he saw the others. Steve was struggling to get up off the ground, surrounded by large bat-like creatures with three long tails that had wickedly sharp points, Robin had chopped clean through one of them, lessening the pressure on the man while Nora took the bat to another. Eddie sped forward, ready to help, and he swung his mace into the wing of one of the bats just as Steve made it off the floor, covered in blood that poured out of a multitude of wounds and with an angry red mark around his throat, and ripped one of the creatures in half with his bare hands.

Bats kept coming and the group kept fighting, Nora having since handed the bat back over to its owner and begun blasting the things with fireballs with one hand while her other swung the axe with deadly accuracy, but they couldn't last long.

"We have to go!" Nora cried, grabbing a creature by the base of its tails and searing straight through them as it screeched. "These things never travel in flocks of less than fifty!"

As if summoned, a faint screeching reached their ears and they turned to see a dark cloud of the things heading towards them.

"Run!"

And they did. They ran as if the Devil himself was on their tail because, as far as Eddie was concerned, he was. He led the way to the shore of the dried up lake where Reefer Rick's house was, and barged through the back door, thankful that it wasn't locked. They made sure to barricade the door behind them and to check all the windows for cracks or weaknesses before they congregated in the living room, the furthest room away from the lake and the creatures.

"What the hell were those things?" Eddie panted, leaning heavily against the wall.

"I call them Flyers." Nora responded as she helped Steve over to the chair.

"Flyers?

"Yeah. And I called Demogorgons 'Two Legs', and Demodogs 'Four Legs'." She shrugged, kneeling between Steve's legs as he scrunched his face up in pain and looked to the ceiling. "There isn't exactly an encyclopaedia for this stuff, they're just made up names."

"Do these Flyers have rabies?" Robin asked, standing in the furthest corner away from were Steve and Nora were. "I ask cause, you know - I'm terrified of rabies, like deathly afraid, so -"

"They don't have rabies."

"Oh thank God."

Steve hissed as she wiped the blood from one of his wounds. "You've been bitten by these before?"

"A few times." Nora confirmed, leaning in close to the man's torso to get a better look. "Eaten some too."

"You ate them?" Eddie exclaimed, his face contorting into a grimace.

"That was before we realized the houses had food but no people in them. Steve, I'm sorry but I'm going to need to cauterize these. The bites are too deep, they're going to keep bleeding."

Steve whimpered and Eddie winced in sympathy, looking around himself for something for the other man to bite down on while Nora literally seared his flesh. He was graced with twin smiles of thanks when he handed them a wooden spoon from the kitchen and stepped back to watch. Nora held a finger up, keeping a close eye on the injured boy as it glowed orange, before pressing it firmly against the wound. Robin and Steve moaned together and Eddie had to look away, focussing instead on Nora's soothing voice giving reassurances and encouragements.

Finally, after a gruelling 15 minutes during which Eddie had had to excuse himself to the kitchen, the groaning stopped. A few moments later, he heard the sound of shuffling feet behind him and turned to see Steve walking in, holding his bandaged side delicately. He stopped beside him in front of the counter and stared out the window at the hordes of monsters flying above the gate.

"I wanted to thank you." He said after a few moments of silence.

Surprised, Eddie turned to him, eyebrows raised high on his head.

"Thank me? For what?"

"For doing all this, for coming after me." Steve clarified, meeting his gaze and giving him a small smile. "You could have just hidden at Nora's, stayed out of it. You've not been involved as long as we have, you could have just washed your hands of it, you know, but you came out to the lake with us to find the gate, and you dived in after me. So thanks."

Eddie didn't want to point out he had actually dived in after Nora, instead just sending an awkward smile and nod, accepting the man's gratitude.

"Didn't look like you needed all that much help." He pointed out. "When you ripped that Flyer apart? Dustin told me you were badass but man..."

"Dustin said that?"

"Oh yeah, insisted on the matter in fact. You have no idea how those kids idolize you and Nora, how many times I had to get them to shut up about you so we could get back to our game."

"Huh."

They were silent once more, before the image of Nora crouching between a shirtless Steve's knees popped up in his mind.

"Hey, can I uh - can I ask you something?"

"Sure, man, anything."

He hesitated, sending a glance back towards the living room where he could hear the girls murmuring quietly. "You and Nora." He finally said. "Is that... is that a thing?"

Steve snorted and then groaned, clutching his side. "No, man. Definitely not. I mean, she's amazing, you know, sweet but badass, but no. I see her more like a sister than a potential girlfriend." Eddie nodded, turning his eyes back towards the window and ignoring Steve's look. "You should go for it."

"What?" The man jerked back, staring at the other with wide eyes. "No, that's not why -"

"Don't play dumb, Munson, I see you looking at her." He smirked. "Man, when she set her hands on fire at her house, you looked like you didn't know whether to run for the hills or bone her right there in front of everyone." Eddie blushed, looking away. "And I'm not the only one who's noticed. Max saw too and I'm fairly certain Dustin is jealous. I think he's had a thing for her for a year now."

"Henderson?"

"Yeah." Steve chuckled. "He knows he has no chance, though, so no hard feelings. Go for it."

"I'm not - I mean... You think I do? Have a chance?"

Eddie hated how small his voice was. Where was the flirt? Where was the guy who would play with his hair and smile cutely to show his dimples? Where was this uncertainty coming from? But Steve just scoffed.

"Yeah, are you kidding me?" He laughed. "When you ran away that night Lucas found you, she was frantic man, frantic."

"She seems like the type of person who would worry about anyone in that situation." Eddie pointed out. "That doesn't mean anything."

"Nah, man. I mean she's nice to everyone, absolutely! But she doesn't particularly care about anyone except the Party and Parents. I've never seen - or heard in this case, I guess - her put herself in that state for anyone that wasn't us. And you've known her for like three days, man." Eddie smiled, confidence boosted and the thought that maybe, just maybe he would turn on the charm for her when all this was over crossed his mind. But Steve still wasn't finished. "Oh and dude! Yesterday, after she showed you her work in the basement, I've never seen her smile that much."

"She's talented."

"That she is, and everyone knows it. I mean, she isn't short of compliments but I don't know what you said to her man, she smiled so hard she had dimples. I didn't even know she had dimples. I'm telling you, I've never seen her react to anyone the way she does to you."

"Alright, alright!" Eddie sighed, trying and failing to supress his smile, unable to get the thought that he had seen her dimples multiple times now out of his head. "I'll go for it."

"Good - shit the girls are coming!" the other man hissed, then more loudly: "Yeah so then Dustin - oh hey ladies! Didn't see you there!"

The boys turned to face the girls and Eddie resolved to pay more attention to Nora and the attention she paid to him, immediately noticing that she sent him a smile that she didn't send Steve, though she did rove her eyes across the bandages on his abdomen.

"Ok guys," Robin began, "I think we've dallied enough -"

"Dallied?" Steve mouthed at him and he had to supress a grin.

"- and after careful thought, I think we should wait them out."

"Wait them out?"

"Yeah, I mean they can't stay there forever."

"Actually, they can stay there for a pretty long time." Nora corrected shooting a look out the window where the Flyers were still circling.

"Well how long is a long time?" Eddie asked. "We can still wait them out, we just need to lay low."

"Yeah, Nora, didn't you say you had a house here with provisions and everything? We can go there." Steve proposed, looking back and forth at them all. "Will the food still even be good? Can food go bad down here?"

"It can but the cupboard contents down here gets replaced anytime they're replaced up there, but that's not the problem."

"What's the problem?" Robin questioned.

"The problem is that there's no way to cross the river between here and there and the banks are too vertical to climb."

"Uh - yes there is, there's a bridge." Eddie pointed out.

"Mmm not anymore."

It may have been Eddie's imagination, but he thought Nora look sheepish, though she hid it well under her impish grin.

"What are you talking about, I took that bridge just this morning." Steve said, his confusion relaying in his tone as he gingerly leant back against the counter.

"They didn't have me fighting a pack of Demodogs on that bridge five years ago up there."

"You blew up a bridge?" Eddie demanded, eyebrows disappearing into his hair. Just how powerful was this girl?

"Great! Just great!"

Steve and Robin devolved into bickering, arguing about the best plan and the best place to hide until the swarm of Flyers got tired and gave up, but Eddie kept an eye on Nora. As soon as she thought no one was looking at her, her smile disappeared and her eyebrows dropped into a hateful frown. Though he had only known her for two and a bit days now, he had only ever seen that expression on her that morning, when she had declared her intent to kill Vecna.

He didn't like the implications.

Changing her expression as she saw him send a smile her way, she lifted her lips up to match him when her eyes turned to the window. She squinted, staring out at the gate in deep concentration, biting her lip. Eddie was about to ask what she was thinking about when she spoke first.

"I can do it."

The bickering pair stopped, turning their heads towards her even as she continued to look past Eddie and out the window. Finally, her eyes snapped straight to his, holding his gaze firmly.

"I can get you there."

"To the gate?" Nora nodded, head turning towards Robin. "How?"

"Alone. You have to stay here until I'm done. And then guys I'm gonna need you to give Robin a head start." She said. "Thirty seconds should do."

"What? No way!" Steve exclaimed. "Why alone? What are you going to do?"

Once again Nora met Eddie's eyes, her cheeks turning pink slightly but she didn't waver.

"A full body inferno."

And Eddie understood. She was going to go out and blast them all to hell, but to do so she would have to sacrifice her clothes, hence the thirty second head start.

"What?"

"They haven't invented fireproof clothing yet." Eddie explained and he shared a private smile with the woman before him.

Only to start choking when she pulled her flannel off and began unbuttoning her jeans, balancing on one foot as she tried to take her shoes off using only her feet. Steve was in a similar predicament and they both turned away, clamping a hand over their eyes for good measure. There was a tense minute where the only sound was that of Nora's clothes coming off, and Eddie bounced on his toes, begging his mind not to go there.

Finally, Nora spoke:

"Here, Robin, hold my clothes. As soon as I'm done, you run after me, ok? And bring my axe with you please."

Her words made Eddie baulk and, temporarily forgetting her state of undress, he turned to look at her. She was standing there in just a small t-shirt, underwear and socks, showing off her long and creamy legs, blushing to her roots, staring resolutely at Robin who held her jeans and button up flannel. But Eddie wasn't staring at her body - or rather, he was, but specifically her scars. And tattoos. He had been right, that first night he had met her: she had many more scars hidden beneath her clothes.

That gnarly scar he had noticed on her hip continued downward, disappearing under the side of her underwear to reappear on her leg, extending all the way to mid-thigh and a large green snake followed along the lines. On her opposite thigh there was an agglomeration of smaller marks tightly grouped together to form a sort of flower shape that he recognized as a Demogorgon's mouth from the Party's descriptions, which Nora had transformed into a trio of sunflowers. That same shape was copied in a smaller form curling around the calf of that same leg, and there were small lines like cuts and knots of circular shiny patches pretty much everywhere else, though these were not enhanced by artistic designs.

Thankfully, Robin had had the same thought as him since he was too gobsmacked to speak in that moment:

"You're not taking your axe?"

"No, I'll damage it. Ok, going now, bye!"

She turned and ran out of the back door, speeding straight down the bank and into the dried up lake, leaving Eddie to choke on his spit at the sight of her turning away from him while clad in just her underwear. Robin snorted and patted his back in a mocking gesture of comfort, and together they turned to watch out of the window. She was far enough now that they couldn't see her clearly enough to be embarrassed at her lack of a full outfit.

The closer she got to the gate, the more and more Flyers left the swarm to dive bomb her, only to fall in the face of her fiery hands. For a moment, she disappeared from sight, hidden by the sheer amount of black creatures surrounding her, but a burst of orange flame and she was free again, sprinting further and further away.

Finally, when she was far enough that they could only see her vague silhouette, she stopped.

She stopped running and she stopped sending columns of fire from her hands, instead gathering them at her side. The remaining trio gasped as Flyer after Flyer dive bombed her, sometimes swooping just above her head, sometimes coming close enough for a hit, but she ignored them all, focused as she was. And then -

Throwing her hands out wide and her head back towards the sky, she let loose an explosion of fire that rocked the entire cabin. The flames spread outward, high and wide just like the bombs Eddie saw on TV, getting closer and closer each second and they had to duck for cover when the windows burst inward, scattering glass all over the room before the flames and the unbearable heat receded.

"Go!" Steve screamed at Robin, who bunched Nora's clothes and axe tightly against her chest with wide eyes and disappeared out the door.

Steve and Eddie didn't wait to get back to their feet.

Robin was pelting her way down the shore towards the gate where Nora waited, but the boys' attention wasn't on her.

Not a single Flyer remained in the sky. Large flecks of ash floated around, and dozens lay dead on the ground, but in the centre of them all, Nora stood. Even as far away as they were, they could see her swaying, and they cried out in unison when she fell as if in slow motion; first to her knees and then on her face.

Thankfully, Robin wasn't far by then and they watched as she threw herself on the ground next to Nora. It was difficult to see everything from this distance, but Robin was leaning over the other girl, grabbing her by her shoulders. The boys could only assume that she was satisfied by what she found as she turned away to grab the clothes she had dropped to the floor and proceeded help Nora dress herself.

"That's thirty seconds, right?" Steve asked, breathing hard.

Eddie had no idea, he hadn't been counting, so focused he was on Nora's progress.

"Right." He said anyway, jumping from his position behind the kitchen counter and rushing to the door, closely followed by the other man.

They ran as fast as they could and the girls' silhouettes became clearer the closer they got. Nora was still laying on the ground, Robin knelt in front of her to obstruct her from view, busying herself trying to pull the other woman's jeans up her thighs. They would have made quite a comical sight had the situation been any different: Robin tugging as hard as she could at the trousers while Nora's legs kicked sluggishly in the air to facilitate her job even as she tried to stuff her arm through the remaining sleeve of what had been her overshirt.

When they finally came to a stop, panting hard from exertion and concern for their friend, Nora was thankfully fully clothed again, though she was still fastening the bottom few buttons on the shirt.

But both Eddie both Steve were struck speechless as every inch of uncovered skin was streaked with red.

Twin streams of blood poured from her nose and ears, going down the sides of her face to clot in her hair, she had vicious looking scratch marks on her face, neck and clavicles and he saw a gaping hole the size of his palm on her abdomen before she did the last few buttons. Her red flannel had growing dark stains in multiple spots, and the boys could only stare in horror at the girl as she grit her teeth and grabbed hold of Robin's shoulder to help herself up.

"Nora..." Steve whispered.

"I'm fine." The woman grunted, hopping on one foot to stabilise her balance before letting go of the other girl. She looked up at them from under her lashes, her head lowered slightly, panting heavily. "I'm ok. You need to leave." She stated, uninterested in having them fawn over her. "More Flyers will be here soon."

That seemed to snap them out of their trance.

"She's right, let's go!" Steve called.

Robin went first, guided by the man's hand on her back. As soon as she disappeared into the glowing mucus that made the gate, Steve was after her, sparing a worried glance behind him, but Eddie wasn't going anywhere.

I can get YOU there, she had said. YOU need to leave.

Thinking back to the look in her eyes back in Reefer Rick's house - the same look she had had after she had told them about Vecna killing the other kids at the lab - it dawned on him what her plan was. And he wasn't having any of it.

Plastering a tired yet charming smile on his face, he bowed and swept a hand out.

"After you, Milady."

He didn't miss the flash of panic in her eyes or the small step back she took.

"No, it's ok - you go first."

"Not a chance, darling." He drolled, dropping his arm to his side as his grin morphed into a smirk. "I'm not leaving until you are." She didn't respond, just stared at him with narrowed eyes and pursed lips. He waited a moment for her to give up, but she didn't move. "Tick tock, Nora. Didn't you say more of those things would be on us soon?"

Finally, with a barely audible groan of frustration, she shot him a glare and limped over to the fissure in the ground. Struggling to her knees, she leant forward and hovered over the gate for a barely a second before she pushed through, axe first.

Only once her feet disappeared did Eddie follow.